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An UrbanDaddy Publication

07/20/2012

Weekending Right: The Vacation Houseguest Edition

Najib Benouar

In this new weekly series, we peer into your summer weekend agenda and offer a few essential sundries to help you make the most of your upcoming escapade. This weekend, you’ve been invited to a friend’s summer home.

The vacation home. It is a sacred thing come summer, when escaping the city’s summer heat for an easygoing bucolic weekend is your only hope for keeping sane during the dog days. If you don’t have a place of your own, it’s likely you’ve got a friend who does. So, when you get the invite, you’ll need to be prepared (aside from the usual necessities) with a few extras that’ll make you the perfect houseguest in every way.

Stock your weekender bag with these five things and you’ll be invited back sooner than later.

The token of appreciation: Booze is always a safe bet—wine, champagne or, ideally, something you can use to make your go-to cocktail. We’d say bourbon and a side of Angostura bitters will get you in the door just fine. (Old Fashioneds have never gotten a weekend off on the wrong foot. Never.)

For freshening up: This travel set from Malin + Goetz will fit into any dopp kit, is well under flight regulations and will have you set for the two to three days you’re on the lam.

For the morning coffee: Pajamas. You should have a nice pair by now, but if you don’t, this is the perfect excuse to pick up a pair from Derek Rose. Go with cotton for the summer.

For the afternoons: It’s more than likely your host’s summer vacation place is near some sort of water—at minimum, a pool—so you’d do well to pack a pair of swim trunks that will transition from the water to drinks on the back deck. These from Orlebar Brown are always a safe bet, or take our advice and give seersucker trunks a go.

In case you’re the host: When it’s your place, you should want to cultivate the weekending vibe and make your guest feel welcome (he did just drop serious coin for some “pyjamas,” for god’s sake). The more thoughtful, the better—your old high school pal will probably get more of a kick out of the vintage Playboy on his nightstand that your mother might.